They say when one journey ends, another begins.  I’m excited to finally say that today was the start of that new journey for our family.  I was given a key today by my husband, a very special key.  This key will open the door to a place I haven’t really mentioned on my blog:  our new home.

For some reason I kept our home building process under wraps.  There were times I was going to post pictures of the various phases we were going through, but then I decided I might as well wait til the very end.   Sometimes I don’t talk about things until they’re a “done deal”. 🙂  Some of you may know our home-building process was a very, very long one.  Shortly after we bought this lot, I went in to labor with our 4th son and my husband met me at the hospital in a 26 ft. moving truck…can you imagine finding a place to park that?!  That little baby just turned 2 last month!  So you see this is a dream that has been in the making for a very long time.  All of the things they say about home-building are true:   it can be very stressful and always takes longer than you think.  I have to thank my husband for persevering and for making it all happen, with everything going on in our lives and at work.  Soon I won’t have to spend 2 hours a day commuting back and forth to the kid’s schools!

Remember my recent blog post with a flashback to the 50’s?  Our original home was built in 1956.  Like many current home buyers  in this area (where land is very scarce), we chose the home to tear down and build new.  The lot was great, backing to parkland and  a playground in walking distance.  The owners were a fascinating couple in their 80’s.  They could be seen out walking with their transistor radio or riding on their tandom bike.  They had a great vintage VW van that reminded me of the one I grew up with.  We had their blessing to tear down the house as it had not been updated and would have needed considerable repair to be shown new.  I’d like to share with you in pictures our journey that has taken 2 years and has finally come to an end today, when we finally recieved our keys.

If you don’t hear much from me here, I’m off “feathering” my new nest!  The timing of all of this is a bit stressful with the holidays approaching and a few jewelry deadlines approaching as well.  Is there ever really a good time to move though (maybe the summer time would be good!)?  All that matters is we are finally here….on the verge of making new memories and carrying on old traditions. We already started a few when we took the kids over after dinner tonight.  Here’s to new beginnings!